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Salvador Dali,
Persistence of Memory, 1931
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The Surrealist movement was created by Andre Breton (1896 – 1966) when
he published Manifesto of Surrealism in 1924. Breton was greatly influenced
by the theories of the subconscious of Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung. Like Dada,
the predecessor of Surrealism, the theory of the movement was based on anti-rationalism.
The Surrealist’s aim was to express the dream state and the subconscious
through art. The Surrealists believed that art should allow complete freedom
of expression; hence painting the subconscious mind was core to Surrealist
paintings. Freud believed that by bringing one’s dreams and repressions
to the surface, as the Surrealist painters attempted to do, one was able to
free themselves and not be held captive by them. Artists closely associated
with the Surrealist Movement were Jean Miro, Salvador Dali and Max Ernst.
Salvador Dali’s paintings embrace the subconscious mind. He believed
in copying his dreams onto canvas, which would allow for analysis. Because
Surrealist images are in fact dreams painted onto canvas, they have no intention
of being comprehensible at first glance. The painting thus becomes simply a
personal expression of the artist’s subconscious.
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Frida Khalo,
The Henry Ford Hospital, 1932
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In the image, Persistence of Memory, Dali paints giant clocks in the process
of melting and bending, like the mind melts and bends in a dream. Dali invites
the viewer to misread what they see by means of distortion. The image surpasses
reality and becomes surreal, as in the dream state.
Frida Kahlo, is one of the best known women associated with the Surrealist
Movement. In her image, The Henry Ford Hospital, she expresses the pain of
miscarriages that were a result of an accident she had as a child. Although
disturbing, the image reflects her subconscious mind.
